The Grand Sorceress Louise
by Dalknexus
Summary: Louise fails to summon her familiar for the first time. Well no biggie, familiars are for the weak and powerless. There'll be plenty of explosions from Louise and Vietnam era weaponry. After all, this story should have a Vietnam add-on, right?
1. In Which the World Gets the BSOD

The Grand Sorceress Louise

Prologue – In which the world gets the BSOD.

_"Ever since the Springtime Familiar Summoning, Louise has been… different." – Nameless Student._

Today was a good day. In fact it was a sunny day with absolutely no chance of rain or apocalyptic clouds of destruction and mayhem. If nature itself had a corporal form, and mind you it doesn't (at least right now it doesn't), then it would look around and won't see the horsemen of the apocalypse anywhere. Thus reaffirming the fact that: Today is a good day.

"Was that everyone?" A bald man called out. The man absentmindedly scratches his head with his staff as if he was forgetting something.

"No Professor Colbert, Louise hasn't summoned anything yet!" Some nameless student yelled out. Apparently someone is asking for trouble.

"Well then, Miss Vallière?"

Professor Colbert watched as the students started to back off and stayed out of arms reach from the small strawberry blonde mage like she was the walking plague. Of course there was a very good reason why no one would want to be near that mage. While the professor regarded the child of the Vallière family to be a studious girl, her practical craft had much to desire. Let's hope that the 'Summon Servant' won't end like everything else she had done.

As Louise approached the circle, she was mumbling angrily. The cause of this anger was not because she was called out, but rather because the professor forgot her. She was a child of the Vallière family! You don't just forget someone from high nobility. Plus, she wanted to do her own summoning, in her own terms, with her own conveniently forgotten reagents in her room. It also didn't help that people were muttering her nickname and were slowly edging away from the assumed danger zone.

"Are you alright?" Colbert called out as he noticed the mage shaking in the magic circle. To the professor, she definitely appeared to be nervous. However, confusing nervous with mild anger is a reasonable error… I think.

"I'm f-f-fine, professor." In her hand, was her wand, crackling with energy. Wait, crackling?

"Very well, you may proceed when ready." Eyeing her omnious looking wand, he calmly checked it off as the magic potential of the girl. Never mind the fact that he was quite sure that wands don't do that normally. But to make sure, he started to think of the protection spells needed to shield the students…. who are now much further away than a moment ago.

The last child of the Vallière family had to perform this spell. She could hear the people in the crowd muttering that she was a 'Zero'. Being called a 'Zero' was a pet peeve to her. In fact, right now she's seeing everything in red. Forget the plans to summon later, she was going to summon something right now and it going to knock the socks off her classmates. Nevermind the fact that the muttering of 'Zero' changed from a tone of insult to a tone of fear.

Everyone held their breath as Louise started to chant. The moment she pointed her wand towards the heavens, lightning was emitted from the wand and struck the area around the girl like a barrier of lightning. Then it stopped. Seriously, it completely stopped. A few moments passed before Louise opened her eyes. Aside from all the students ducking and covering from the display of lightning that was most definitely not part of the summon ritual, nothing happened.

Poking out from the safety huddle of students, some unknown student attempted to taunt, "Failure li-"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off as some clouds started to cover the sky. Some really dark looking clouds with really scary rumbling coming from them. In a matter of moments, the academy was cloaked in darkness.

"I… I just made a little mistake!" Louise squeaked out as the frequency of thunder and lightning increased. Suddenly, lightning started to strike the ground around all the students. At this point, a mathematical relationship could be said about the frequency of lightning strikes and the wailing of students calling out 'We're Doomed': it was linear. As in, there was a lot of screaming. The chaotic weather seemed to reach its climax, the ground shook, making the instigator of the event to stumble and look to the sky. In an instant, her world went to a blinding white light then darkness.

* * *

"Oh, that's classic!"

"Mhmmm…" Louise awoke to a sound of a man laughing. From her surroundings, or there lack of, she was in a pure white room. In fact it probably isn't even a room seeing that it would be more appropriate to call this a pure white expanse. The few things that stood out was a man sitting on what appeared to be a really comfy leather chair and the freaky black moving picture box. Well freaky to the little student mage, "What kind of magic is that?"

The man got up and turn toward Louise. She can clearly see that his was dressed in all white with some kind of fabric that she could not identify. She tried to get more features on his face, but for some reason it's like her mind is blocking it out. Then her eyes drifted back toward the rather entrancing moving picture box with distracting noises.

"You know, people normally ask where they are at before asking about the TV." The man took a couple steps toward the mage to get a better look at his visitor.

"TeeVee…" Louise stared at the contraption that obviously was hypnotizing her before the man blocked her view and consequently allowed her to use higher cognitive functions. "Whaaa? I was summoning a familiar… where am I?"

"Well, that took a bit of time. Hmmm, a wand so you aren't from earth." The man was examining the wand that the pink haired mage was clutching. "If you were summoning a familiar you should've taken a right at the edge of nowhere. Now you're in the void between dimensions."

"Edge of nowhere? Void?" Apparently, she was still recovering from the effects of the box.

"Yes, yes… Now normally when people want my help they usually stay on their planet. The trip is really, really brutal…" The man continue to rant about the travel to his home, which in a few moments while Louise finally comes to grip to reality, or there lack of at the moment. For a minute or two, Louise just stands there and listens to the guy talking before deciding she should get some better answers. Everything he's saying is making no sense to her. She'd done her job of being polite to this com- Wait. Was this a commoner or noble? That alien attire really looked well made….

"Hey…"

"-Wax wings. Can you believe that? Trying to fly here… on wax wings."

"Hey…" This time she used a little more force.

"Not only that but he was heading toward the sun! Those melted right off."

"Hey…" With more teeth gritting action, no one rants and ignores Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. It's unethical and usually results in an explosion or some other painful action.

"I have to admit, was pretty impressive to get as high as he did with wax wings."

The irritation meter of Louise was about to reach max level as she continued to listen to this old kook's rant about the travel here. A few moments later, she started to shake like a volcano getting ready to explode. In a rather exaggerated motion, the mage pulled her arm back like she was going to throw a ball. "SILENCE!"

A couple seconds passed by as a slight gust of wind appeared out of nowhere. A minute passed by before the man restarted. "Huh? I thought if I got a mage mad enough, I'd get a lightshow. Well that was a bust. What are you? A failed mage, you freakin' have the MP… A shit load of MP. Whoa whoa whoa, don't go crying on me."

Louise was convinced that this commoner was right. She couldn't even cast a silence spell. She was a failure of a mage, her mother was never going to accept her. She was a disgrace to the family, she should go off and die in a hole. In fact, she should never go back from… wait. How did she get here again? There was the summoning… the blinding light… THE BLINDING LIGHT! Then in an instant, like a personality switch. Louise went from crying to maniacal laughing. You know the type of laughing someone uses when their reality is shattered.

"This is like the Zero, everyone says. Not only did she fail at summoning, but she blew herself up!"

"Holy crap, I don't think that's healthy to mentally beat yourself over it. I mean, it's nice that you stopped crying, but damn, don't try to force yourself to cry again."

"What do you know! I'm a noble who has no magic! Maybe mother is glad that a stain was removed from the family!"

"Uh… I hate to break it to you but you're not dead." The man deadpanned and that stopped Louise. "You probably shouldn't be making assumptions. I'm sure if you study hard and enough practice you'll get magic spells. You got a shit load of MP. I still don't get why you don't have spells."

If the first statement of being alive still halted her self-loathing rants. The second statement about magic outright stopped her thinking process. After calming down a bit more from hysterical wreck, "What do you mean 'study hard and enough practice'? What makes you think I could cast magic?"

"Well, you have an MP bar, you know Magic Points instead of Stamina Points or Rage."

"Magic points? Is that willpower?" Those terms were flying over her head.

"Plus, you've summoned yourself over here. Many good people much older than you and experienced tried and failed. If anything, whatever magic you have, has the ability to punch reality in the face. You just don't get here on accident."

Get here on accident? Uh oh. Forget the learning magic issue, the more pressing engagement is how to get back if she's alive. "Even if I got here on accident, I don't know how to get back." Wait… if she gone back with nothing then she'd fail the summoning. Maybe if she took a right at that one place he mentioned….

"Well, don't think too hard. I promised myself that if anyone arrives, I would grant them a wish."

A wish? Is this man serious? "I.. I need a familiar and a way back."

"Well, I could provide you a familiar and a way back." The girl lit up like a child receiving a Christmas gift, "But, what do you really want?

"Really, I need a familiar and way back." Louise doesn't know why she believes this man, but he emits an aura that feels like everything he says is not a lie. In fact, this man even gives off an aura like he's your best friend that knows you inside and out. Or it could be the fanatical hope that her dreams can come true.

"I can sense it, the familiar would only solve a part of your problem and if I did give you a familiar, the one I'd give would be this guy name Saito. Hmmm." The man walked around the girl. "I see, you're suffering from a self-confidence issue. A big one. What you really desire is power and respect. Well not really power, but the desire to be more competent related to your status as a noble."

Power and respect? Well, now that Louise thinks about it, it's true. She was only ridiculed by everyone because her magic was always a failure. If this man is right about being to give her what she wants… "You can teach me magic?"

"Well, everyone that wants to come here wants more power… At least you're not using for evil purposes, that much I can tell. Doesn't seem like your world is being threaten by dark wizard, so I don't think you need the Sword of Masters. If you did… well some wizards came by and took it from its resting place, bloody thieves. Yeah I could teach you magic, but I'll do better."

"Better?"

"Yeah, better. I'll give you exclusive rights to the Tree of Sephiroth. That way you can look up information and you'll be guaranteed to learn magic from it among other things."

"A book?" If she wanted to learn magic through a book, she'd go the library.

"I guess you can call it a book, it's more of a database. Still, the last person that got access to this was able to do miracles, literally. Walking on water? Just look up ancient ninja techniques." The man said as he walked up and placed his hand on Louise's forehead. "Now hold still, while I create a link…"

Miracles? Now why does he need to put his hand on her head? Why can't he just hand the book over? And why is she feeling lightheaded.

"Now… that dizziness is normal. The system is creating necessary connections to allow the transfer of information. Well, you have a decent connection at least."

*Connection Achieved… Measuring Bandwidth… Uploading*

Suddenly, images rapidly floated through Louise's vision. In an instant, whatever she could of asked would instantly come to her. If she wanted to, she could ask what the velocity of an unmanned swallow is and very damn well get the answer.

"Uploading? What's going on, what are these images?" The little mage wondered as answers started to float in her head.

"Wait? Uploading? Oh shit!" The man yelled as Louise collapsed to the ground. "I uh… Fucked up. Yeah, fucked up. The human brain isn't supposed to support the copy of the Sephiroth System."

"I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going." The only thing that Louise was able to say as the world gets darker.

"That's a perfectly legit response when your brain is starting to fry. Don't worry I can fix this. By the way, nice reference, at least you aren't getting useless information."

Louise could barely feel the hand touching her head through the massive headache that formed. The instant the hand did touch her head, she felt like she was free falling down and tunnel with a massive light show inside. She could hear voices as she seemly descends to the darkness.

"_Daisy, Daisy."_

"_The terminal velocity of an average human body is…"_

"_There's no earthly way of knowing… which direction where we are going?"_

A few moments later, the headache that Louise was feeling was fading away. She was still free falling, but the multicolor lightshow seemed to die down. Out of nowhere, a book smack into her head. Her vision blacked out before she was brought to a blue screen.

"Memory Fault in Reality. Please press CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot Reality. Additonally, please restart Louise OS for additional updates."

Well, something gives her an idea what this means, but she doesn't have a keyboard to press this. Her visions started to black out again as her thoughts drifted back to the book that hit her. "Professor Vlad's School of Magickal Excellence 101."

"Well, I guess this is time you leave. Careful on how you use this, I didn't fix it completely, but I did manage to limit the upload so that you won't fry your brain. Still, the human mind isn't supposed to handle this information transfer, so don't do too much at once. I even gave you limited access to the Creation Forge, once per week. It's the least I could do for messing up your mind. Portus!"

* * *

As a beam of light pierced down from the heavens and struck the magic circle. A few seconds later, a colossal explosion happened. The skies cleared up and everyone stopped praying to Brimir. Miraculously no one was injured, good thing they stayed ten feet away from the summoning circle because it's now an eight foot diameter crater. In the middle of the crater that wiped out the summoning circle, was a smoking and obviously extremely dazed child of Vallière. Opening her eyes, she could see the professor trying to wake her.

"Miss. Vallière, are you alright?" From an explosion of that magnitude, it's a surprise that the girl still had her limbs.

"Colbert?"

*Accessing References to: Colbert*

"Miss. Vallière, why don't I take you to the infirmary for rest and check up?"

*References Found*

"Professor Colbert, are you a Democrat or a Republican?"

"What?"

Well, today **was** a good day.

End Prologue

AN: This sounds like a more promising project to work on. Well, at least it'll be more entertaining to attempt to write. I'm making no attempts to canon railroad except for major events, but even then they'll be way different. In a way, this'll be easier as I'm not too constrained by trying to follow events because I'll make my own events, they just have to make sense. Leave a review or something to about the execution, grammar or whatnot.. Further down the line I'll need someone to bounce ideas off of. This'll probably be the only thing I'll be working on 'cause I fucked up the nasu-verse in the other story. That'll need a better rewrite.


	2. Putting on the Robe and Wizard Hat

Grand Sorceress Louise

Chapter 1: Putting on the Robe and Wizard Hat, Preferably the Yellow Robe.

_"I liked the days when the explosion of failed magic was all we worried about. Now we have to worry about the random shouts of insanity, magical bombs, and well… her successes." – Tristain Academy Staff_

Yesterday took a turn for the worst. When the dark clouds started to spread and coat the Academy, everyone could practically feel the doom coating the area. Well everyone except a couple of individuals, one of which was Headmaster Osmond. That geezer was so old, that he's seen at least two doomsday scenarios. Hell, he probably almost caused one. The other individual is surprisingly the timid looking maid, Siesta.

Siesta was humming to herself as she continued cleaning Miss. Vallière room… for the sixth time. Yesterday was pretty hectic, many of the student nobles rushing in after that thunderstorm. Really, it was such a nice day and there wasn't any indication that it was going to storm. Maybe there was a magic spell demonstration? In any case, there shouldn't be any reason why they should leave the main hall in such a mess. Really, it took her nearly an hour to clean floor.

Giving a good eyeball at the desk she finished cleaning, she nodded to a job well done. The desk was sparkling clean, the only real problem was that the desk had no finish and was made of some pretty dark wood. Yet it was still sparkling… There's a real problem with that. In any case, Siesta moved on to the next task on her list, folding the new set of clothes for Miss. Vallière again. Those clothes were attracting an awful lot of dust.

This seems like a waste of time to any other observer, but really the Head Maid had been ordered to provide a servant to tend to Louise by the headmaster. It so happened that the maid with the qualifications to tend to a scion of the Vallière family was Siesta. Actually, qualifications to the Head Maid for this job are the person she most likely wanted to sacrifice and the most threatening to job security. Well the second qualification pretty much links to the first.

Siesta's resumè was pretty damn impressive. She started working as a maid at the age of fifteen, which was pretty young normally they'd be twenty when they started. She didn't work for Lord Mott, just another noble in Tristrain. The reason why was that Lord Mott kind of gave an impression that he was one of those weird that would dress stark naked with only a trench coat and flash random females. Yeah, bad news. Wouldn't look good on the resumè.

She had been changing contracts to higher nobles as they came and saw her good work. Her skills as a maid started to become legendary. No other maid had such high level cleaning, cooking, and overall professional preparation for everything. The grand hall that usually took a four or five servants in a couple hours, took Siesta the same amount of time to clean by herself. She even got the ceiling, that's freaking dedication. Before her name could be fully known to the nobles, Headmaster Osmond plucked Siesta away from another noble. Not for her skills, rather for her looks. Pity, none of the nobles really bothered to ask for her name. It was beneath their station to do so. At least the pay grade is higher.

"Grandfather would be proud of me," Siesta murmured to herself as she inspected the room for the seventh time. Hearing some groaning and mutterings, "Ah, Mistress is about to wake."

As if struck by lightning, Louise instantly got up and yelled "What do you mean brain damage!"

"Nobles are strange," Siesta quietly said. Yeah, they wield magic and are scary, but that wasn't going to stop her from thinking that. Grandfather always said that the life of a combat maid is fraught with peril. He hadn't exactly said Maid, he meant it more for Butlers. Besides, Grandfather was proud of her for continuing his legacy.

* * *

"Mhmm" Louise was just starting to wake up from yesterday's ordeal.

_*User consciousness detecting. Connection established. First time user?*_

"Uh… my head." She felt someone decided to play drums on her head.

_*Interpretating the answer as 'Yes.' Would you like the tutorial?*_

"Tutorial… why? Who's saying that? Why are you so loud?" Louise groaned out was toss her pillow over her head to drown out the noise.

_*Interpretating answer as 'No'. Skipping tutorial. The time is eight o'clock am*_

_*Ding*_

_*You got Mail!*_

"Mail?"

_*Opening… From Administer*_

_ *If you're able to hear this, that's good. It means you aren't a vegetable with brain damage and…*_

"What do you mean brain damage!"

_*You'll freak out… haha I knew that was going to happen. No seriously, you don't have brain damage, however; I sort of lost… your previous knowledge of magic*_

"WHAT!"

_ *Don't worry, I installed a new easy to use trial version of another system. Just consult the Serphioth System for details. Well, toodles!"_

"Details," The girl gritted out. Louise was shaking in anger about the loss of her old magic. Nothing can be better than what the founder taught… Right?

_*User magic knowledge had changed to dimensional manipulation in order to directly conjure elements. Warning, while user's old magic system is being recovered, Sephiroth must maintain link in order to download hotfixes. Thus, Sephiroth will be in full observation mode instead of on demand access. In full observation mode, Sephiroth will query results unless user is focuses on a particular topic whereas the connection to server can be cut off unless user needs a query. Note there is a side effect to full observation mode.*_

It can't be worse than losing all her magical knowledge. It's like kicking her when she was on the ground. It was what got her through most of the academy without getting kicked out. Maybe she lost her mind and is hearing voices…. Still, doesn't change the fact that she failed the summoning. "What is this magic?"

_*Accessing… *_

_*__Professor Vlad's School of Magickal Excellence 101*_

_*Chapter 1: I can pull a bunny out of my hat and so can you!*_

_*Zeroth Law of Magickal Dynamics: Professor Vlad is NOT a Vampire…*_

Siesta was watching silently to Louise's exchange with herself. Grandfather used to act like this shortly before passing away. Better tend to the mistress before she gets her wand. "Mistress…"

"Huh…" snapping Louise out of her studying of magic. To Siesta, it was more like staring at a wall like she did have brain damage. "Who are you?"

_*Accessing… Maid: A female servant…. Querying references to high nobility… "Your enemies and followers will be in awe when even your servants can defeat them"… See Article: Ninja Maid.*_

Ignoring the maid, Louise queried the reference to Ninja Maid. The more and more she listened to her pocket database, the more the blood drained from her face. This maid can't be a ninja maid. Wait, why is the room so clean? Great Founder! This is supernatural cleaning that ninja maids have and she's young, like seventeen or something.

_*Evidence to ninja maid 2-0*_

"Ah, Mistress? Would you like me to dress you?"

"Gah!" Louise scrambled back as far as she could on her bed. It's like she moved ridiculously fast and was next to her. Evidence… 3-0. "W-W-What?"

"I said, would you like me to dress you?" Siesta said while using her fake smile. Inwardly, she was starting to get worried. It wouldn't do to get a bad rating from a noble. All nobles expected for a servant to dress them properly. Besides, the faster she can dress this noble and get dismissed, the less likely she'll reach for her wand. There was also all that laundry to clean.

"Oh…" Sliding out of her bed, Louise first noticed that her attire from yesterday is still smoky from the explosion. After she gets her change of clothes, the she needed to learn more about the magic she acquired. The ninja maid issue can wait. "I'm ready to be dressed, servant. You may leave afterwards."

_*First Law of Conjuration: An element conjured stays conjured until another element is conjured that is equal and opposite or is released….*_

* * *

It was around noon time and the lecture on alchemy was about to begin. Surround by her lustful group of males, Kirche was conversing with her… slaves to lust. In the back of her mind, she had been thinking about Louise's behavior today. Earlier this day, she had tried to visit the stubborn and vain Vallière to gloat about having a familiar. It didn't turn out as planned, Louise only opened the door to her room, said "Oh, it's you. You may **not** make your time." Then promptly shut the door .

Over the course of the day, the red haired girl would see Louise walking around without a care in the world with a vacant look on her face. There was something odd about that. Every once in a while Louise would be muttering things to herself. Kirche actually got close enough to hear what she was muttering at one point. Even then it sounded like gibberish, Professor Vlad knows his stuff? The only Vlad that she knows is from a really old Germanian legend about a vampire. In any case, probably would be a bad idea to gloat if Vallière was like this. It's usually the quiet ones that snap and she's quiet now.

Louise was still in her own little world as she sat down. For the entire day, she was on autopilot. She was concentrating on the knowledge that was being read in her head. It was like reading a book, only in your mind. Now she really did feel like that Tabitha person. No matter, before she left her room, she had tested out one of the tutorial lessons in the book. It was a success, she can conjure elements. Thankfully, she remembered the First Law of Conjuration and canceled it. The things she can do now…

"Miss. Vallière!"

"Huh?" The girl was snapped out of here inner contemplation.

"Have you been paying any attention to this lecture?" Professor Chevreuse scolded. Louise definitely did not even listen at all. She was too busy plotting, in fact, so busy she didn't even catch the professor's name.

"Sorry professor…"

"Well, then pay attention closely. I will be demonstrating a –"

"Professor, before you begin… Where did you get that hat? And where can I get it?" The entire time, there had been an arrow pointing at the professors hat. It was even flashing the letters 'Wizard Hat'. Well, conjuration is a specialty of wizards and she can conjure now. So she better damn well get a wizard hat.

"Vallière! Thank you for the compliment." Obviously, everyone now thinks Louise sucking up to the teacher. "I got this cloak and hat in the capitol. Now let me demonstrate the usefulness of earth magic."

The professor tapped her wand at the pebbles on the desk. In a bright flash of light, the pebbles disappeared and in its place was a bunch of pieces of bronze. For a moment, the class was silent. Kirche was about to open her mouth and yell something, but someone beat her to it.

"How did you do that without a transmutations circle!" The instant the words left her mouth, she slapped her hand over it. She didn't mean to say that! She had to agree though, that almost looked like a violation of the laws of alchemy. Equivalent Exchange, pfft.

_*Side Effect of the Sephiroth System Full Observation Mode: Random Outbursts and Mild Bursts of Insanity*_

"Why that was just to transmute bronze. Transmutation circles aren't used unless for much harder elements like gold. Well, why don't you try it?" Vallière seemed like a good smart girl. The professor really wondered by this girl seemed to be feared by the staff. Well, she was going to help this girl succeed.

"Professor… I don't think that's a good idea." Kirche called out.

"Why now, don't ridicule your fellow classmates."

"I'm telling you, that's not a good idea." The class nodded in agreement. It was good sense, the mayhem create from the failed spells was disastrous. Thank god, no one has gotten hurt… too badly.

"I'll do it!" Everyone is trying to sabotage Louise. Well, they'll see what she can do. Oh they'll see…

"Well, then proceed." The class seemed to have second thoughts. In fact many of them are huddling in the back of the room, starting to build a barrier of desks.

"Hmm, alchemy is earth I think…" Louise started to think. From her connection, it was telling her that the trick to magic alchemy was manipulating earth. Well, she can get earth… It was in the Vlad's Periodic Table of Magic Elements. The basic runic word was 'D', but how much earth did she need. Meh, five earth should be enough. 'DDDDD' It is then.

The professor was a little bewildered when she was a small stone started hovering around Louise. Then another appeared and another appeared till there were five in total orbiting the girl. Finally, the stones stopped orbiting as Louise threw her wand forward. The stones collected at the tip of the wand and started to grow. A few seconds passed by, then just about the time for Louise to release the elements.

_*… It is a well-known fact that alchemy does NOT go well with conjuration!*_

Before Louise could stop, a giant boulder about the size of the current instructor launched from the wand. Seriously, that defies explanation. How does a mage that small not get any recoil? Thankfully, Louise wasn't even aiming and the boulder flew straight past the teacher and through the wall with a small yelp of surprise on the other side. After few moments, the professor fainted.

"I think I made a small mistake…" At this point, a person dropped from above the new window into the room. It was the maid on the other side of the wall that narrowly escaped death by magical rock. It was the same maid that attended Louise in the morning. How did she get to the ceiling so fast?

_*Ninja Maid Evidence 4-0*_

Well that was enough practical magic for one day. Time to try summoning after finding a robe, a yellow robe, because only yellow can command anything, not blue, and definitely not red.

* * *

After yesterday's ordeal, Colbert had been filing the reports for the familiars for each child yesterday. Filling out the papers, he finally reached the last in the pile. He kept it on his desk as he picked up the rest of the papers to get to the Headmaster. After all, perhaps the child could summon something next time.

As he approached the Old Osmond's Office, he saw Longueville exit out of it. From the looks of it, she was also a bit irritated by the old man's antics. The woman was rather pleasant to the eyes. "Ah, good day."

"Professor Colbert."

"I see that Old Osmond is up to his old antics again?"

"Well, it is rather irritating. I still haven't gotten that mouse."

"You are a rather attractive young lady. I'm surprised no one else has tried." At least now the Flame Snake is making his move. He wasn't going to let a chance like this pass by this time. It was time to man up. "How about dinner some time tomorrow?"

"Such a flatter? Is that what you say to all ladies?" The green haired women seem bemused. "Very well, tomorrow it is."

Colbert watched as his love interest walked away. His eyes drifting slightly downward as he watched for a few moments before entering the headmaster's office. In the spacious office, the headmaster seemed to be amused about something.

"Well, Professor. If you needed to make moves on a vixen like that. At least make sure you're alone and not in front of my office."

Oh, that's why he was amused. " Sorry sir."

"What can I do for you, Colbert?"

"Here are the documents of familiars summoned this year. Aside from the last summon attempt, it was an exceptional year. A dragon was summoned."

"Oh? We hadn't had a dragon be summoned in a couple years. " Osmond leafed through the documents. "Tabitha was it, very brilliant and capable mage."

"I have a question regarding Louise." Before he forgets, there was something he needed to know.

"Oh?"

"I know the girl is a studious child, even splendid in her academics in theory, but why are we waving her practical grades?"

"I see. Well, the Duke of Vallière had expressed concerns of his… failing daughter. He just wants to keep her here for a couple more years. He has been donating generously to the academy."

Why a couple of years? Colbert thought about this. There were a couple of reason why there would be a reason to keep his daughter here. A daughter with no capability in magic. Wait, usually they are disowned if the noble in question had no magic. Is he keeping Louise here to that she'll get credentials as a mage? No… something else is afoot. The Duke could easily use his influence to make others look away or allow her to marry into another family.

Osmond stood up and walked next to his window. "As it is, we would not deny the Duke his wishes… My word, is that Vallière down there?"

Colbert joined the man and looked down at the empty field where the summon was taking place yesterday. The field had been magically repaired but there was still that large patch of dirt where the summon circle was vaporized. He could make out a pink haired mage with a blue robe on. It appeared she drew some kind of summoning circle. Not a normal one mind you, but a summon circle ten feet in diameter, we some kind of yellow reagent in the center.

"Perhaps you should go stop her, Colbert. For our sakes as well as hers."

Back down on the ground level, Louise was adding the finishing touches to the summon circle. According to the book, summon was like cooking. Mind you, the small noble never cooked in her life. The instruction said to follow the directions exactly. Well, she was confident that the summons will work. It took some time to get robes, which the maid that found them couldn't find a yellow one. Blue was still pretty good as long as it wasn't red. As long as this shiny new manitcore wasn't red then everything will be fine. Louise supposed that she wouldn't be needing a yellow robe to display her superiority.

"Familiar reagent, check. Summoning circle, check. Summoning reagent, check. Blood…. Maid!" Louise yelled out. Not even a second passed by and Siesta appeared out of nowhere.

"Yes, Miss Vallière?" When a master needs a something, the maid should be able to hear them and instantly respond. At least that what Siesta's grandpa always said and again those weren't really the exact words. He really meant a butler, but who's keeping track. Right now, Louise is her master by the head maid's orders.

"Gah, don't do that!" Louise breathed out as she held a hand at her chest and feeling her heart beat a bit faster. "Can you fetch me a knife?"

Siesta flicked her wrist out and small paring knife four inch paring knife appeared in from her sleeves. "Would this do?"

"Do you keep this on you everywhere?"

Siesta nodded as Louise took the knife from her. That was five votes for ninja maid and no votes to prove otherwise. Maybe when Louise gets her allowance later, she'll buy the contract this maid was under. With that maid, she'll be well respected and feared like that noble: Lelouch vi Britainnia.

"I know I'm not a noble, mistress, but is a lemon really a summoning agent?"

"Commoner! I know what I'm doing!" Louise yelled as she winced from the small cut on her finger. Siesta definitely had enough sense to back away as Louise started to chant. "Oh Mighty God, I beseech thee and offer thee this gift. Please, grant me a familiar!"

A mighty beam of light struck the center of the magic circle. Louise closed her eyes from the bright beam of light and when it finally died down. The reagents were missing and in its place was… Nothing. Absolutely nothing!

"What? I did everything right!"

_*Incorrect, you had to follow the directions exactly. Manticore hair was not supposed to be added. Ritual was tainted. Advisement not to do this ritual again, you may have angered God. Additionally, Lemons do not qualify as forbidden fruit and thus not acceptable.*_

"What!" Never mind the fact that the 'God' is blasphemous in the world that worships Brimir like a god, she lost her reagent for the summons. Now she won't get a cool manticore. Then the last statement dawned on her. "Did I just give God a lemon?"

Oh shit! Those guys aren't going to like that! Actually, I guess it is karma for all those 'lemons' he gave Louise.

Near the village where Siesta grew up in, a disorientated small imp got up. "This was NOT a part of my contract!" Looking up, it also noted it was raining goblins, yellow goblins. The asexual goblins that reproduce like bunnies. Strange things are afoot at Tarbes, dangerous strange things. This is probably God's way of saying fuck you world and your nasty lemon!

End Chapter 1

AN: Well there another chapter for this. This is way more enjoyable to write. Justification to changing Siesta's background…. There is none. We needed a ninja maid! Plus, I'll attribute it to the BSOD of the prologue. Key thing to note about the Sephiroth System, Louise can pretty much acquire information on the fly. Problem is, it's stuck on FOM. This means until it gets fixed, she going to have random bouts of insanity if she's not focused. There also another thing too… but I'll leave that out for now. Now the system of magic that had to get installed… Just remember it's just the **Trial** edition.


	3. Fouquet Strikes

Chapter 2: Fouquet Strikes

_"Fouquet is such a brilliant, yet dastardly foe. Not only did the thief challenge the magic of Tristrain's Academy, but to do so using such powerful magic, it is no wonder why nobles have such a hard time against this thief." – Headmaster Osmond._

Lord Mott had a bad reputation. It wasn't because of his heavy taxes in of the estate that he controlled. It was because he actively was out searching for maids to tend his manor. That spreads all manners of creepy rumors. Also justifiable considering that trained servants are a commodity. You see about fifty years ago, no noble would actively seek servants. Why would you? You just picked a random commoner in a small village and bam! Instant maid or butler. Then the servant occupation revolution happened. You see, any old commoner could do the task that a servant can do, but not as well and they didn't have this aura of professionalism.

The servant occupation revolution also known as the Butler Revolution started when a noble had his life saved by a man dressed in attire akin to a noble. The man remains nameless to this day, but his reward for saving the noble was to be a paid contracted employee that would serve the noble. It was after a couple of months people noticed that a contracted servant was exponentially better than an indentured servant or a servant picked off the streets. Even after the training to be a proper servant, they did not reach such a level.

At the end of the contract, the man disappeared. Rumors say that he had a master in a faraway land. Other rumors say that he traveled the lands, training people to be a butler. In the end, he seemingly vanished, never to be seen again.

Mott's predicament was that he couldn't find any contract maids in his location. While many of the finest wine come from Tarbes, it was still pretty much located in the middle of nowhere. No servant would want to come here to work, nothing much to do around here. In addition, there weren't many women around. The only thing remotely close that would ward off his frustrations, for lack of a better word, was his stash of 'secret' books. In fact, he'd be willing to part with some of them for a decent, young maid and there was a maid in the Tristrain Academy of Magic that caught his eye the last time he visited. That old coot that ran it was lucky to have such young maids and it turned out he was willing to share for some of his stash.

"Lord Mott!"

"Guardsman? What is it, it my carriage ready for departure?" Today's the day where he was definitely going to pick that maid up.

"No sir, it just that it may not be a good idea to travel today. The roads are swarming with goblins!"

Mott raised an eyebrow. "Surely, you're joking. We have orcs and large cats here. Goblins are located in the heart of Germania."

It wasn't that Goblins were a threat to Mott or anyone for that matter. It was just that Goblins wouldn't often head away from their underground homes in Germania. It was mostly due to the fact that they would be too busy fending off wandering adventures that Germania was known for. So it was understandable that they wouldn't see many Goblins enter Tristania or any other nation for that matter.

"It's just that there is enough of them to blockade the roads going toward the Tristrain Academy. It is unsafe to travel today."

"Very well Guardsman, see to it that this issue is resolved promptly."

"Yes sir."

As the guardsman left, Mott mutter harshly at the ridiculousness of the situation, "Goblins aren't dangerous. They're cannon fodder for more dangerous enemies. What do I pay these incompetent fools for? "

The Next Day…

The lord of Tarbes was busily casting his magic and blasting the next wave of goblins teleporting in. Really, this was insane. Who ever thought goblins could cast magic and teleport? While Mott might be a noble that usually bought his prestige through bribes or favors, he was no slouch when it came to battle magic. One had to be when one was allied to the Vallière family. That Duchess can be a real shrew when it came to combat.

At the edge of his vision, Mott saw a flash of light. Ah, another goblin mage teleporting in around him. Quickly Mott threw a fireball in that direction to blast the goblin to smithereens. Given how these small creatures were still banging at the doors, it looked like they weren't going to give up for a long while. Their attack started late last night and they still kept coming. Thank god Mott had invested a large sum in these walls.

"We're being overrun! They've tunneled from underneath!"

Apparently, the walls were not enough. He knew he should've also invested in the stone foundation for his mansion. Goes to show you can't prepare for everything.

"They're in the manor, stealin' our food!"

A headache was starting to form as he blasted yet another goblin teleporting past him. This was ridiculous; He and his men must've killed at least a hundred of these vile creatures. You would think these goblin would've been scared off by the initial display of fire magic, but they kept coming. In fact, it seemed they had gotten more aggressive.

"Lord Mott, we must flee! There's too many of them."

"Yes, I can see that." Mott frowned as the next thought occurred to him. Once they'd gotten out, he would need to try and take back his home. Given the size of the goblin force and their ferocity, he wouldn't be able to raise enough people to fight them, even if he forced all the commoners in Tarbes to fight. That was, those that weren't already defending against this invasion. This was going to cost him, but Mott would be damned if he was turned into the laughing stock of the land because some small yellow midgets stole his mansion.

"Guardsman, when we safely get away. I need to send some men to warn our neighbors of a goblin infestation and well as recruit adventurers to fight this." Those creatures would pay alright, they'd pay. Time to fight their way out through the back entrance; thankfully these goblins hadn't been smart enough to surround the mansion.

* * *

It was a few days after the last summon attempt. After finishing her breakfast, Louise was out in the Vestri Court practicing her magic. After yet another failed summoning attempt, she had spent most of her nights learning about the magic she had. Now, she'd been trying the effects that her magic had. After a couple of beams, exploding boulders, and landmines; the court looked like a battlefield full of craters and scorch marks.

"Still can't use higher level magicks…" Louise huffed out. It irritated her to no end. Here she was able to conjure up the primal forces of nature, in all their displays of power and grandeur, and she couldn't even make a small rainstorm! Seriously, she couldn't make one small little rainstorm, much less a large thunderstorm. If she couldn't cast anything right now that'd make people look at her with shock and awe, then she'd do it the other way. First she'd need some supplies, and then a big steak.

* * *

Siesta was busy cleaning up the mess that Louise made a couple days ago. While that boulder came out of nowhere and generally frightened her, it was nothing compared to the training given by her grandfather. Speaking of training, it was hard work hauling the boulder out without an earth mage, and even harder to sculpt the boulder into smaller pieces with a stick. After a few hours of work, she had finally made enough bricks to rebuild the wall of the classroom. This probably would've taken an earth mage not even an hour to do, if they weren't all taking a vacation. Poor professor Chevreuse.

The unfortunate professor had to take a break after her minor brush with Death. Of course, she wasn't in the direct path like Siesta herself, but it still mortified Chevreuse to suddenly see a wall blown through by a boulder. The instructor of alchemy had wanted to go somewhere peaceful and quiet after that episode. Siesta, being the nice person she was, had suggested that the weary professor head to Tarbes. It's a nice peaceful village with quality wine and it could use more tourists.

Unfortunately there was one thing Siesta forgot to mention before Chevreuse left. She needed to fix the wall. With no other earth mage to rebuild the wall, the maid took it upon herself to rebuild it and with the current tools and materials available.

"-aid" Siesta stopped packing more bricks into a bag. It sounded like someone was calling for her.

"Maid!" a second, louder call followed. It seemed Miss. Vallière was calling for her. Hopefully, it wasn't going to be a troublesome task. A half an hour later, they were on horseback riding toward the capitol. If all went well, they should be back in the evening.

* * *

"So Colbert, I've heard so much about Tristrain Academy, but not much about the magic that protects the walls?" Longueville asked as she sipped her wine. At some point during the day, Colbert asked her to lunch. Much to his surprise, she accepted, as she needed more info about the treasury.

"As you know, Tristain's Academy is known for training its students rather well. It is also known for its safety. Back in the days of the founder, this Academy was built to spell against many attacks from small infiltration to large siege." Colbert academically explained.

"Oh, that's impressive, but what about the magic that protect the treasury?" the green haired secretary pushed further.

"I'm afraid I can't say anything about that even if you had permission to catalog the treasury last night."

Longueville pouted and then leaned a bit forward while unbuttoning a couple buttons of her tunic. "I'm sure a cute secretary like myself couldn't possible do anything to the castle walls."

"Well, I guess I can tell a pretty lady like yourself about the magic." Now if she unbutton another button, then he'd see a bit more than a little past the neckline.

Inwardly the thief undercover smirked. If casual conversation didn't work, then sex appeal would. "So about the magic?"

"Oh yes. It protect by an array of spells. It contains the most basic protection against the elements and has a magic surveillance system that Osmond is linked to."

"Surveillance system, wait does that mean Osmond could be watching us and listening?" This was serious, that would mean Osmond might have seen her try to break in the treasury already.

Colbert noticed that Longueville seemed rather alarmed by this tidbit of information. She could be worried about him talking about this forbidden subject, but that didn't seem like it. What could worry this lady so much that she could be insecure about the academy security? Osmond is a rather respectful man, that's better than most people Colbert himself worked under. It's just that Osmond has his quirks with… Oh.

"Well, no. From what I recall, it was an old system that Osmond is currently linked to. He really doesn't know it entirely, just enough to alert him on an empathetic level. In short, for distress or urgency, Osmond can feel it and know where it is at. So no, he can't directly look into the private rooms or the lavatories nor can he directly find someone. Only enough to know where trouble is brewing." That seemed to calm down the women.

Longueville sighed in relief. Thank god that old coot wasn't omniscient. That would have blown her operation straight out of the water from her activities yesterday. It was also a plus that the old man couldn't spy her in her room. "So what about the treasury? I heard some of the greatest of riches are in the guard by this academy."

"Riches? That's ridiculous. While it doesn't hold gold or jewels, the academy does hold items of immense power. One such artifact is the Staff of Destruction and that was such an odd artifact."

"Odd artifact? So you've personally seen it before?"

"Seen it? Hell, I did more than that. I've inspected it and checked it's magical mechnisms?"

"From the name, it must've had a lot of magic?"

"Quite the opposite, I'm not even convinced it has any magic at all after my inspection. I haven't taken it apart, but what I've gleaned from it, it more resembles a musket that Germania's army uses. It's just we haven't figured out where the trigger to active the device is?"

"Oh a non-magical weapon of destruction? Commoner's would love to know about it."

"That's why it's locked in the academy. It's also said that this device can fell a full grown wyrm."

"Enough about the weapon, what about the treasury's protection magic?"

The more and more this conversation is going. The more and more this feels like an interrogation to Colbert. It had been setting off alarms in his head from his shadow service training. Eyeing the women again, the man decided that this secretary must just be curious about it.

"The magic that protects the main tower is even better than the ones that protect the outer walls. It's been said that this academy used to be a magical fortress. Most of its magic is concentrated at the main tower. It enchanted against not only the elements, but against magic itself. It will absorb all the elements of magic, protects even against transmutation, and even, to a lesser extent, against physical force."

"Wow, you make it sound like it has no weakness." Longueville downed her wine. Damn it, it seems that this job is starting to become impossible.

"Weakness? Well there is a couple weaknesses. One is to be a void mage, but as you know there hasn't been one since the founder."

Right, void mage, like she could use the legendary element.

"Or if you had a sufficiently strong golem. Like I said, protection against physical force is the weakest part of the enchantment." Shit, he wasn't supposed to say that. The wine must've been getting to him.

Golem eh? She can definitely work with that. It Looked like another night of scouting was required. This time on the wall's outside, to make sure that the explanation of the defenses was correct.

* * *

After depositing their horses at the stable, Louise and her maid left straight for the city. Siesta was admiring her surrounding, while she had worked under lots of nobles, she was normally tending their manor in the middle of nowhere. So rarely did she have a chance to go into Tristain.

"Wait, before I forget." Louise suddenly stopped as she dug into her blue robes for something. Pulling out a brown bag, she held it out for her maid. "Now nobles never carry their money on person. So, here."

"Uh, yes my lady." Siesta said uncertainly. She had never really heard that before. Then again, she never went out shopping with her previous employers. Idly, she wondered where she was supposed to store the bag. It was about half the size of mistress's head and Louise pulled it out of her robes. Who knows how much the small mage kept it concealed in there, and how she had it secured throughout the ride here! Maybe it would be best if mistress held on this-

"Since you're carrying my money, keep it secure and don't let anyone steal it." Louise said, and stalked down the road to her destination.

As soon as her current charge turned around, Siesta had to resist the urge to palm her face. Really, who would say that out loud, in a middle of a busy street? Even she had enough common sense not to say that. Now everyone is going to target the young and defenseless looking maid. Unless… Oh, mistress is tricky. That is some high level thinking and psychology. This bag is probably a decoy and doesn't actually have any money in it. It must be some kind of test to see how effective of a maid she is. Well, no one is getting their hands on this slightly weighty bag. It is just too bad she can't look into it because Louise probably had it enchanted.

A few more turns and a couple streets down, they were going into the ghetto part of town. There was trash piled on the street and stinking up the place. Siesta had warded off around four attempts to steal the bag, in which all of the perpetrators were discreetly disposed of. Honestly, she was expecting more because she deliberately held the bag out like a giant neon sign saying 'steal me'. Speaking of which, here's another thug…

"Okay, we're here. Siesta do you still have the money?" Louise said. It almost sounded like she was expecting it to get stolen, but really, it was an honest question.

"Yes mistress."

Louise looked behind Siesta and saw some disgusting looking commoner passed out in a pile of garbage. "Hmm, last time I was here there wasn't that many drunks pasted out on the side of the street. There has to be about five of them since we left."

"Perhaps something unfortunate happened?" Siesta suggested. Yeah, she could go with drunks instead of thieving thugs.

Louise nodded to herself and agreed. Giving one last look of disgust toward the passed out lowlife, the young mage walked into the store of her destination. The store that'll house her staff, Tristain's Arms.

The store owner of Tristain's Arms was actually quite busy. It seemed there had been an influx in demand for weapons in the past couple of days. Something about a goblin invasion and a noble needing adventurers to exterminate them. He was in the middle of polishing another sword when a blue robed girl walked in. Odd, don't priests wear robes in usually white or brown?

"Whadda ya buyin'?" A customer is a customer and he can't deny profit.

"I'm looking for a staff."

That was a good guess, the shopkeeper congratulated himself with. Priests use staves, swordsmen use swords, and mages used wands. The same could also be said about what they're wearing. "Whacha lookin' fer young lady?"

"Well, I was looking for a magic staff that I could focus my magic with. Do you got anything with level five intelligence enhancement on it"

Focus her magic? Level five intelligence enhancement? What is this girl droning on about? "Now ya see 'ere. This ain't a shop fer toys."

That really set Louise off. Toys? Toys! Did this commoner really think she was a helpless girl that played with dolls all day? Oh she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

As Louise 'negotiations' started with the shopkeeper, Siesta decided to look around the shop. It sparked her interest as she had some formal training in weapons combat from her grandfather. The room was decorated with weapons. Pulling one of the swords from a rack, she gave it a couple of practice swings.

"Hmm, pretty crappy copper broad sword." Siesta murmured to herself. Setting the sword back, she looked at another rack. There was a rusty blade on it. It seemed it hadn't been kept up in a long time. Pulling it out of the rack, she did the same routine with the last sword.

"Good balance, light weight. If I had the money, I'd buy you and clean you up."

"Well, it's been a while since some had a grip this good." The sword said suddenly.

Siesta eeped and dropped the blade. The sword talked. The sword fucking talked. Quickly looking behind her and around her, she could see no one pulling this prank.

"Oy, girl, pick me back up and continue what you were doing. I want to feel the work with your hands on my hilt." Okay, now when the sword thought about it, that was probably a phrase the old man would say.

Slowly, Siesta picked the sword back up. "So Mr. Sword, how are you rusty like this?"

"I've been here because the shop keeper keeps warding people away from me. He hasn't even cleaned me since I arrived here."

"That's too bad, if I had the money I would buy you." It really was a fine blade. She had a couple collections of weapons in her room, but none like this sword. It had some personality to it, no pun intended.

"I have to say, your spitfire buddy of yours that you came in with is starting to make the geezer sweat now."

"You mean mistress Louise, Mr. Sword?"

"That girl is a noble? Well, I wouldn't have guessed it with how she dressed."

"Well she recently started wearing that, perhaps if she wore her cloak outside? How are you able to see anyways, Mr. Sword?" Siesta held the sword up close to see if there are any distinct features that qualify as eyes.

"It's magic, I don't have to explain shit! And call me Derflinger, lady."

Siesta giggled a bit from the last statement. Perhaps she was over-analyzing the sword. She didn't need to KNOW all features of it. "Okay Mr. Derflinger, my name is Siesta."

"Drop the mister, just Derflinger. I think that little lady is just about to finish"

Back at the argument of negotiation of terms, which mostly consisted of calling each other names, the shop keeper decided to pull out the 'You are a loiterer ' card. "Look here brat! I dun deal wit peeps with no money. If you ain't got money, git out!"

"Why you… I'm a noble, is this how you treat nobles?"

"Only noble I see is the princess o' brats!"

"Grrr…" Louise was just about to pull out her wand and show this commoner the nobility of her. Instead, she calmed down. Her father did drill some lesson on showing diplomacy to commoners. Perhaps it's time to use it. Digging into her robes, she pulled out the badge that held her old cloak together. "See, I'm a noble that attends the Tristain Academy of Magic."

The shop keeper took a good look at the badge. It look authentic, the girl did have an arrogant stance to her, and was that a maid behind her? It WAS a maid behind her. Oh shit, this was a noble and she's pulling out a wand. "Noble! Forgive me, I've been good on taxes and my weapons have been of good quality. Please, I have a wife and children to feed!"

Really he didn't, but she didn't know that. It was a line he practiced often; hence none of his improper language appeared. If she was looking for a magic staff then he had something in mind.

"I'll forgive you this once, but only if you find me a staff and five rods of metal."

"I have just the staff for ya. It was brought in from a couple o' adventurers. They said it was from a goblin that wielded magic. Ya believe that, a goblin mage? Not only that, but it was teleportin' with it."

Louise rolled her eyes. Right, Goblin mages. The store keeper went to the back and returned with a black staff with a skull on top of it and five metal bars. "How about something a little less… menancing."

Pulling something from beneath the counter. "Gnarled staff made from the magic oak outside of Tristain?"

"Too generic."

Tough customer to crack. Well, how about this. He pulled out a broom stick from behind him, "The mythical staff broom o' the wicked witch of the west. She used this 'ere broom ta fly around and cast magic against 'er foes. She was unstoppable except 'er weakness against water magic." That gnarled staff had more magic in it than this broomstick did. In fact, this was the broomstick his father had bought one day from a retiring butler. It had no more magic in it than he did in his pinky finger. No one was going to beli—

"Oh, I'll take it."

Scratch that, profit earned is profit deserved. Now how much to charge. Wait, he can probably hustle some more money out of this girl. "Say miss. I see that ya maid isn't armed?"

"So, what's your point?"

"Well, many nobles come in 'ere these days ta arm their servants."

"Why is that?"

"They say t'at there's a famous thief around these parts. Goes by the name of Fouquet. The thief even leaves a calling phrase, 'The item has been duly received.'"

Louise thought about this for a moment. She was kind of a big deal and she had many leather bound books in her room. Hell, with all the cleaning her maid had been doing, her room was starting to smell like a fresh wood. People even knew about her, so the thief actually might steal something from Louise.

"Maid, pick out a sword or weapon. I'll be damned if someone steals from me."

"I have one right here mistress."

Hook, line, and sinker. That maid looked like she was looking at the crappy bin too. This sell looked like it was going too well. Derflinger hasn't even attempted to screw with his business.

Siesta was quite happy when she left the shop. It looks like Louise bought the sword and told her to keep it with her. Now she can clean it up and give it a proper shine. She now didn't care that the pouch of money she was carrying actually had money or that her mistress now carried a broom stick.

"You know, I think your mistress got ripped off!" Derflinger suddenly said.

"What? Who said that?" Louise turned around and saw the talking sword in Siesta's hand.

"I did."

"A talking sword? I haven't heard of a talking sword before…"

"I'm one of a kind baby! As I said earlier, I think you got ripped off."

"What are you talking about? This staff works perfectly fine." Louise conjured up some fire and incinerated a nearby trash pile. "See?"

For a moment, Derflinger stayed silent. "Ha ha ha, I like you girl. It's like the old days with the old man."

"Hrm, well I got a question for you? Do you have plus nine against ogres?"

"Er? If you're asking if I was used against an ogre…. Then yes."

Louise glared at the sword before nodding to herself and turning to Siesta. "Good job, maid. It's an acceptable sword."

"Mistress, I think we should quickly leave now… we're attracting stares."

* * *

It was late in the evening and Kirche was in Tabitha's room. Every once in a while Kirche would bother Tabitha because Kirche believed that the bue haired girl needed more of a social life. It didn't hurt that she was also someone that would actively listen to her. Not like those really easily seduced males.

"Have you seen the state of the Vestri Court?"

Tabitha nodded her head and she turned a page in her book.

"Do you what happened?"

The blue haired girl tilted her head slightly as if in thought. "Louise?"

"Well, it certainly matches the destruction. I remember yesterday's practical exam."

Tabitha remembered that too. It was one of the safer practical exams she had taken in a while. All it required was to light a candle.

"I had mine lit up, I just pity the poor fool next to the Zero. " Kirche had to admit though, it had been a pretty impressive flame. It had power the likes of which she had rarely seen. It didn't have the beauty and subtlety like the flames crafted by the Germanian girl though. All in all, Louise did more than just light the candle. "That poor sod, he never saw it coming."

Tabitha nodded in agreement. Those flames did look rather painful, especially with that display of fiery panic he had going. He never stopped, dropped, and rolled until he tripped over something while running in circles. Then he was rolling down to the front of class.

"She even had the gall to say, 'The desk was still functional.'"

Suddenly, Tabitha got up then started to walk out of the room. Something was bothering her familiar. She was going to check it out.

"Wait up, Tabitha. Where are you going?"

"Sylphid."

Back down on ground level, near the wall where the treasury side of the main tower is, there slept a peaceful blue dragon. It had dreams of food and food and food. In fact in her dreams the food was poking and prodding her. It was very ticklish, so it kept giggling. Then suddenly all the food disappeared and it could smell freshly cooked steak nearby.

"Mistress, I don't think this is a good idea." Siesta commented as the giant blue dragon was peacefully sleeping through the poking.

"It'll be fine if it's anything like my mother's manticore then it'll be just like a big dog." Louise continued to poke the dragon with her 'magic broom staff'. The dragon started to stir and grunting in a way that sounded strangely like laughter. "Now wake up!"

With one final poke, the mighty dragon opened its eyes and stretched out its neck to yawn. She looked around and noticed it was fairly dark in the sky, but the light in the Academy grounds made it visible enough for Sylphid to see the mage that was poking her. Sylphid saw that the mage was dressed in blue, the dragon's favorite color, and that the mage had someone standing behind it with a piece of steak. At this point, the mage started to bicker with her friend.

"Mistress Louise, I don't feel comfortable holding this dish."

"Maid quite whining, it not like the dragon is going to eat you."

Siesta was quite certain that the predatory looks in the dragon's eye wasn't for the steak. Before Siesta could express and more concern, Louise started to talk to the dragon.

"Ok dragon, you can have the steak if you fly me up to the tower then back down when I'm done." Louise said as she pointed at the steak on the dish then at the tower.

"Girl, I don't think it can understand complex speech like that." Derflinger said from his resting place on Siesta's back.

Sylphid, completely understanding human speech, nodded and let out a squeal of delight. Only except to them it sounded more like a roar. It was going to get a midnight snack.

"See, I'm never wrong when it comes to this." Louise triumphantly said. When it comes to utilizing other people's familiars, she had all the laws down to get what she wanted from them. From all the practice from Catellya's zoo to mother's manticore, there was only one rule: the rule of food.

"Unless you're here to bribe someone else's familiar to be yours."

"Yes, bribing someone else's- Zerbst!" Louise yelled.

"So here we are Zero, trying to bribe someone's familiar." Kirche mocked as she walked closer to the duo, or trio if you counted the sword. Tabitha was already next to her familiar as she sat down against it and continued to read her book. "That's a new low Zero, I might have to get into the negatives soon."

"I wasn't trying to bribe it to be my familiar!"

"Then what were you trying to do?" The red head raised an eyebrow.

"I needed a ride to the top of the tower…" Louise started.

"Then why can't you use your 'magic' for it." Oh, Kirche is loving this. It has been a while since she could bully the scion of Vallière. Now for her to hear the next part.

"Because my mrmmhmhmh" Louise mumbled.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch that."

"My magic can't do that yet! Alright, I was going to go to the top of the tower and install a weather control array. It was to show I still had useful magic." Louise said while seething.

"Weather control array?" Weather control arrays were **never** built anymore, they usually did bad things to the environment. If one was lucky. Not to mention, no one has successfully managed to build a controllable version. At least to Kirche's knowledge.

"Yes, it can be done and my book hasn't been wrong so far, I just need to get to the top of the tower." Louise said confidently.

Better let this out of her system now. There can't be anything possible worse than Louise trying to find other methods up the tower. Like that failed alchemy try… Yeah Kirche was doing the academy a favor by supervising the antics of Zero. Now to convince Tabitha.

"Tabitha, could we borrow Sylphid to get to the top." As soon as Kirche finished, see could see Tabitha close her book and nodded. It seemed she had the same idea as the Germanian. Seemed was the key word, in reality, Tabitha was interested in this weather array.

As the three nobles and the maid flew up, they never saw a cloaked figure floating near the treasury wall. The figure felt the wall and the magic coursing through it. "The wall are strong, he was right, I won't be able to use my classic disintegrate the wall and take the staff. There goes plan A."

Fouquet floated upwards to see what those kids were doing. It seemed interesting if she had heard what was yelled below correctly. Weather arrays, like a group of students could possible build one. Dangerous too, it's been said that Albion itself was a weather control experiment with wind stones. Poor fools didn't think about what would happen when large quantities of wind stones were placed _in_ the soil.

At the top of the tower, Louise was busy constructing the weather array. It was already late at night and Osmond had already retired for the evening. It was a good thing too, because the group of students had already pounded five metal rods on the roof and drew the magic circle array. Louise was making the final touches to the circle array.

"You're absolutely positive this is going to work." Kirche asked as she was a bit dubious about the plan. Some of these characters written on the surface didn't even make any sense. 935-apple-115?

"I'm about as sure as yesterday's practical exam."

Tabitha tilted her head then said, "Not reassuring."

"I lit that candle didn't I?"

"You did just more than light the candle alright, you lighted the fear of your magic into that kid next to you." Kirche said as she continued to eye the array.

"If you got any more things to scold me about, it can wait. I'm activating the array." Louise said as she started the activation.

"Wait, shouldn't we get on the ground first before…" Kirche started out but it was too late. The Array shined up as clouds in the sky started to gather.

"No, this is the safest place to be, in the circle." Louise concentrated more.

"That's debatable with you here."

The clouds covered the tower as it started sprinkling. The array was shining brightly as Louise successfully controlled the weather. "See, it works!"

"Yes and we're getting wet. Now turn off the array, you've proven you point." Kirche gritted out. This was a major accomplishment; it was a safe weather control array. The usefulness for such a device ranged from agriculture to military purposes. If Louise was able to replicate this again, then Kirche would no longer be able to call the girl a Zero.

Louise stood there concentrating for a moment before panic started to show on her face. "I… can't turn it off. It's draining magic from the Academy!"

Everyone froze. That **couldn't** be good.

Fouquet listened to the entire exchange. It was high time that she descended the tower and get to somewhere safe. Before she was able to reach the bottom, the sky started to flash with lightning. Then in a display of grandeur, lightning struck all the outside magic lamps. Every single one of them, cloaking the academy in darkness. The thief placed a hand on the wall and felt the magic rapidly being drained.

"I'm not going to pass a chance like this! Time for some old fashioned golem work." Transmutation wouldn't work in this situation, especially when that crazy weather array was draining magic from the building.

Up on the top of the tower, it was getting crazy. Lightning was sprouting down on every metal rod on the roof. Sylphid was cowering down with her head under her hands hoping for the scary event to disappear. Everyone was trying to think of a way to get down from the tower without getting struck down by the artificial storm. Suddenly the tower shook, and the lightning stopped hitting the roof.

"What was that?" The red head had to ask as that shaking had not been a part of the storm. Yet. All of the girls rushed to the side of the tower and looked down. They could barely make out something from all the flashes of lighting the storm was giving off. It looked like someone made a golem and rammed into the side of the tower, right where the treasury was at. Another flash of lightning and they saw someone hop on the golem from a hole in the wall.

"Thanks kids, the staff of destruction is duly received!" With that, the golem took off sprinting.

Only one person had that kind of phrase. It was Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt. It was the famous thief that even stole from high class nobility with ease. "Quick Tabitha, we need to follow the thief!"

Tabitha only shook her head then pointed at the still flashing sky. "Dangerous."

It also didn't help that the dragon was still scared out of it wits and Louise was in a middle of a panic attack. "My weather array caused the thief to break in the academy vault! I'm going to get expelled!"

Wait, the pink haired mage had a point. They're all going to get expelled since they were now accomplices to the action. It looked like the storm wasn't going to die down for a while. They had time to think of a plan to NOT get expelled.

"Okay, here's the plan. We did not go on the roof. We did not draw this weather array. We certainly did nothing wrong. We were happily chatting away and feeding Sylphid." Kirche commanded with absolute finality. In their minds, they did **nothing **wrong.

End Chapter 2

AN: Nothing really new about this chapter. This chapter was to set a basis for the Fouquet fight. The next chapter is where things will start to pick up a bit more. I also would like to thank Madork Gunna for beta-ing this.


	4. Louise Strikes Back

Chapter 3: The Sorceress Strikes Back

_"If there is one thing Louise has, she has a mind of a battle genius. Honestly her schemes seem to border on madness, but it's scarily effective. Like for instance, how she handles golems. The first time I've seen her do that, Fouquet never knew what hit him. Hell, I don't what she did even after the explanation." – Kirche of the Fiery Passion_

Henrietta rubbed her eyes as she put down her feathered pen. It was a long day of work as she was signing off some documents she had been working on. There seemed to be more reports coming in today. Right now she was signing off the permission to open more mines for more weaponry. This certainly looked like the nobles are finally getting off their high horses and actually protect their subjects under their land. She wondered what prompted this?

Being a princess to a kingdom isn't like what people think it is. For one, there was no shining knight that would save her from certain doom. All she really gets for being a princess is to look regal, get shoved into an arranged marriage to protect the kingdom, and get sucked into cutthroat politics. That was before mentioning the paperwork and reports she had to read every day.

The only excitement of today was some petty entertainment. Agnes had been rather irritated all day. Then the princess asked what happened. It turned out that Agnes was getting a sword built by an arms dealer that day, and, apparently, just when it was about to be finished, the shop burned down. It was rather enjoyable to watch Agnes with that permanent twitch in her eyes along with that occasional shaking of rage when Henrietta asked for more reports.

Henrietta nearly jumped out of her seat when Agnes barged into the room. It seemed she still was angry, even after that calming fetch task that the princess gave her. Really, getting more documents shouldn't have been **that** anti-therapeutic.

"Princess Henrietta, I have to reports you wanted." The captain handed over the papers. It was pitiful, the great captain of the Tristain musketeers reduced to what amounts as a courier. If only Agnes could get the permission to hunt down that arsonist…

The princess leafed through the papers before setting them down. She looked the captain in the eyes, "You are quite sure these are the reports from one of Lord Mott's guards that came in a couple days ago."

"Yes my princess." Agnes answered. Henrietta sighed and rubbed her temples.

"This is a serious situation. For all the threats that could happen to the kingdom, this is by far the most unexpected. It seems Lord Mott actually had a legitimate reason to ask for something. "

The princess really didn't like Lord Mott. Aside from the fact that he was a noble that followed very traditionalist views, he really had this creepy aura about him. It didn't help that he was always trying to ask for maids from the palace at every opportunity he could.

"Princess? What could be so threatening, it was only a guardsman complaining about goblins." Agnes had heard some of the rumors from the guards in the palace. There was only one guard that came in a couple days ago and he was, according to the local gossip, raving mad about goblins.

"Yes, goblins." Henrietta said with finality.

"They are just smaller brainless orcs, surely you must be joking. Lord Mott may just be incompetent at protecting his land."

"Brainless orcs, hardly. During my times in Germania, I have heard many things about goblins, mostly nonsense, but throughout everything I heard, one thing remained the same. Germania is serious about goblin threats."

"They must be exaggerating."

"Did you know Agnes? They only send elite units into the dens of goblins. The reason why they have a high commoner army is not only from the lack of nobles, but because the commoners have been dealing with relentless and ruthless goblins that periodically attack villages. I've been in Germainia long enough to see that there are areas that are in perpetual war with the vile creatures."

Henrietta remembered the times when she was visiting the Germanian Royal Family. She had passed through villages that seemed to be suffering from some goblin attacks. More often than not, she would see war scarred villagers rebuilding the ruins of their homes. After seeing the state of these small villages, she was quite glad the goblin threat was only contained in vast expanse of land that is Germania.

"Agnes, I need you to go out and investigate this. Let's hope for our sakes that Lord Mott is actually incompetent rather than that we are dealing with a full scale goblin infestation."

With a nod, Agnes left the room. Goblins? How hard could this be? Before she left though, she was going to investigate more on this blue robed arsonist. She'll be damned if that fire mage is alive after burning down her favorite store.

* * *

It was early in the morning and the Academy started off with a fresh dose of pandemonium. The classes were canceled today, not on the account of the freaky weather on the night before, but rather from the coincidental robbery. They were robbed by a famous thief, Fouquet. Strangely enough, the thief wrote in chalk rather than use the magic he obviously had. If anyone was near the headmaster's office, they would have clearly heard the heated argument.

Old Osmond resisted the urge to rub his temples as his staff kept bickering and whining. Fouquet managed to not only bypass the defenses, but also thwart the ancient magic system protecting the academy. This thief was a rather formidable foe; all he had for defending against the thief at the moment was this staff of panicking teachers.

"How could the academy get robbed like this!" yelled one of the teachers. Richards was it? Osmond couldn't tell because of the headache forming from these bickering fools.

"What about our guards?"

"Guards nothing, they're all commoners!"

"Who was the noble supposed to be on guard then?"

Now they wanted to lynch someone. Great, now he had a mob of panicking teachers instead of an organized group. Colbert better come quickly with the witnesses. Otherwise, they were going to have bigger problems than wild lynch mobs. Problems like an ancient old man going on ballistic rampage with dangerous **magical** fireworks. At least he had a teacher that was level headed and calm in situations of grave importance, but unfortunately he was absent. Perhaps he should have used another one of these teachers to search for witnesses.

He knew that there had to be someone that saw the attack, he felt at least one person conscious enough near the tower. He didn't know where exactly, but he felt it while he was finishing some last minute reports in the basement of the tower. Then it happened in an instant, the magic of the academy was drained and an earthquake struck. By the time he made it outside, he saw a giant gaping hole and no sign of the criminal that did it.

"Chevreuse was supposed to guard it, but she left for an emergency."

"Then why didn't anyone else fill in for her!"

Osmond gave into his urges and started to rub his temples. This headache was getting troublesome and the loud obnoxious noises of these rabid creatures in front of him weren't helping. What was keeping Colbert so long?

"If only that fat a—"

"**Enough! **I won't have you bad mouth your fellow teachers in front of me, and especially when she is not present to hear it." Making crude remarks about his selected staff in front of him was one thing, but making crude remarks about the female staff... Well, Mr. whatever his name was just crossed the line.

"Now everyone be silent, you're all squabbling like the students you teach. Instead of finding a scapegoat, think of a solution to our current problems. Does anyone here have any experience in using tracking magic?"

Everyone was silent. Osmond could feel another headache growing. He has all these intelligent people under his command and yet none of them had any practical experience in catching a thief. It would better if he hired more professors like Colbert, at least he could think on his feet. Speaking of which, the competent professor just walked in.

"Did I miss anything important?" Colbert asked as he walked into a room full of silent people. He could've sworn he heard some yelling as he and the students were approaching.

"No, no, you came just in time." Osmond quickly said as he eyed the three witnesses. Well, there were supposed to be four, but these teachers who called themselves nobles would've been outraged that they would need a testimony from a servant. Clearly, these teachers had not seen the work of a **real** servant yet.

Behind the fire mage, he could see a doll faced young girl with light blue hair. Ah, Tabitha, one of their most promising students. Next to the girl was an exotic beauty with fiery red hair. If he recalled her name correctly, that girl was Kirche Zerbst and she certainly cured any ailment he was having right now. Lastly, there was the strawberry blonde girl dressed in blue robes with her cloak draped over her back. Oh god, Osmond felt another headache forming. It was Miss Vallière, the most destructive and possibly the most talentless mage in history of the academy. That girl belonged in the Tristain Millitary Academy, where they properly tought you how to blow things up. She would be a prodigy there and- Wait, was that a broom she's holding?

"So these are the three that saw the crime?" Osmond asked as he pulled out a pipe from his desk and started to light it.

"Yes, Tabitha, Miss. Zerbst, and Miss. Vallière saw the culprit leave with the stolen item." Colbert confirmed.

Osmond motioned the three students to walk closer. "Tell me what you three saw."

After a moment of silence, Louise was the first to speak. "We were outside chatting and feeding Slyphid when the sky gotten dark. Then all of a sudden this big storm started and lightning struck all the lamps."

Osmond rose and eyebrow to that. When he checked the roof this morning, he had found a peculiar array. He could not make any sense of it, but if what the child was saying was true, then the thief must have used a weather array. There was something strange about that though.

"When the storm started getting worse, the thief broke open the tower and stole something. I think she said it was the 'staff of destruction' or something and then he rode a golem away from the academy." Louise finished explaining as she nervously gripped her broom staff.

"We would've followed the thief, but the storm prevented us from riding Slyphid." Kirche quickly added.

Tabitha nodded and simply said, "Dangerous."

The headmaster just sighed. In the end, they were no closer to finding where the thief went or what the motive behind stealing the staff was. There were other artifacts that would surely catch the eye of the thief, but why didn't he steal anything else? Only the staff was missing.

Osmond was interrupted in his thoughts as his secretary bustled in. It seemed she was a bit tired from running to the office. "Ah, Miss. Longueville, where have you been? The academy has been in an uproar since the thief broke in, and I sorely missed your services."

"About that, I found some information where the thief is located." The women took a moment to catch her breath and to compose herself before continuing. "It seems a man with a black cloak entered a house east of here, four hours on horseback."

"Interesting. Where did you get this information?" Colbert asked, looking directly at her.

"From the commoners in the area." she answered without flinching from his gaze. Her eyes betrayed nothing as to what she was thinking.

Osmond was in deep thought. In a way, this piece of information was too good to be true . It was suspicious that there happened to be someone that saw Fouquet, given the caliber of thief that he was. It smelled like a trap, but on the other hand, the thief could have exhausted a major portion of his willpower to do this heist. There was only one last thing that was bothering him.

"I've already listened to the thoughts of your co-workers, what are your thoughts Colbert?"

"I would form a party to search the last known location of the thief"

"I will only say this once. Fouquet is such a brilliant, yet dastardly foe. Not only did the thief challenge the magic of Tristrain's Academy, but to so using such powerful magic, it is no wonder why nobles have such a hard time against this thief. So I ask again, who wants to go hunt this thief down?"

Aside from Colbert and Longueville, everyone had a nervous look. The nobles had to agree, the Crumbling Dirt must have some powerful magic and a lot of talent. Enough to overwhelm any group of nobles. Osmond had to actively restrain his urge to groan, he was in a room full of cowards.

There were only a couple of people not worried about being killed by Fouquet. Louise was one of them, and actually she was more preoccupied with the fact that she could fix her mistake. Not just that, this would also give her a chance to prove to the family that she wasn't a failure. She would capture that thief no matter what it took!

"I'll go!" Louise called out as she raised her 'staff'.

"I suppose if a Vallière is going then I will go too." Kirche raised her wand up.

Wordlessly, Tabitha raised her staff up. "Worried."

"It's good to see that we have enthusiastic students. I know Tabitha is a young and bright child with the title of chevalier."

"Tabitha? Is that true?" Kirche was pretty surprised. She knew Tabitha was good at magic, but she never suspected the quiet girl had used them in service of the country.

"Then there's Miss. Zerbst who comes from a line of family of Germanian war heroes with a strong background in fire magic."

Louise was trying her best to contain her excitement. Headmaster was complimenting everyone and it was almost her turn. She wondered what the old man was going to say. Perhaps he'll say how she can conjure up all the elements or that she's a brilliant mage of the Vallière line.

"Ah… Miss Vallière comes from the Vallière Family, known for their strong combat mages and her magic is… interesting."

Louise bit her lip and restrained the urge to yell out. Her magic was _interesting_? That was the type of thing you would say to a noble with a bad taste in clothing. She even heard that phrase used to describe her magic by the other students. So even the old man thought her magic was a failure. Well, she would show him! She would catch that thief.

Osmond cleared his throat a bit. That was pretty hard, he almost expected the young pink haired girl to explode. "While I do approve of these three to go, I would feel more comfortable if one of the adults go as well."

The rest of the staff still looked uneasy about the suggestion, but only Longueville spoke up, "I'll go, I know exactly where that house is."

"Good, but you three student be very careful. Fouquet may be tired, but he is a powerful individual." Osmond warned.

Longueville inwardly smirked. It stroked her pride when someone as old and powerful as Osmond acknowledged her strength.

"Be careful, even though he may appear to be tired from using such powerful magic."

Powerful magic? All she used was a golem for her getaway, seriously. What was the old man saying?

"But any person with the knowledge to build such a complex and powerful weather array must be a person with great power. At the first sight of danger, you all should think of running away."

Weather array? Wait, what?

* * *

The party of four people rode out of the academy on a 'carriage'. It wasn't really qualified as a carriage; it was more like a wooden box that someone had slapped a couple of wheels on as an afterthought. Tabitha was reading a book to pass the time while Louise was watching the scenery pass by with a vacant look on her face. It seemed like she was in a deep thought about something.

Kirche on the other hand was wonder what the Zero was up to. She had been sitting there for a couple of hours with that same expression on her face. In fact, she had never seen her move an inch. The dark skinned red head moved from her spot to wave her hand in front of Louise.

"No reaction. I guess I should've expected that from the Zero. As in zero attention." Kirche offhandedly said as she moved back to her seat. Still no reaction. It was hard to believe, about a week ago the zero would be an unstable alchemist's potion, ready to explode at the slightest provocation. Nowadays, she had this vacant look to her face as she wandered around. The only time Kirche had seen the Vallière child experiencing emotions was during her spell casting.

"I heard from the staff that you three were out talking and feeding a familiar. Now that is a little hard to believe, but I don't recall a Zerbst and a Vallière be on social terms. I thought our families have a sort of blood feud? What were you two planning?"

Kirche narrowed her eyes. Longueville was certainly bright, but the red head had an excuse in case someone brought that up, but before she could say anything Louise spoke up.

"Same thing we do every night."

Kirche was confused, _what_ did they do every night? Vallière really didn't seem like she was even paying attention to what she was saying.

"And what is that?" Longueville asked. If she can manage to coax these kids into admitting that they built the weather array, then her alter ego would have her sentence changed from kill at sight to capture at sight.

"Plan to take over the world." Louise mumbled out. It still didn't look like she was listening to what she was saying.

"What?"

"Yeah, we've been playing a mock strategy game since a few nights ago. Tabitha introduced it to me and well Louise overheard. She demanded to play saying that 'Vallière shouldn't be defeated by a Zerbst.' She definitely got into the game as it encompassed the entire world." Kirche quickly said. It was time to change the subject.

"Say Miss. Longueville, why didn't you let a commoner drive that horse?"

The driver sighed as she replied, "It's quite alright, it's not like I'm a noble. Well, it looks like we're at the stop. We'll have to walk from here." She was not going to explain her life story, they were close enough to the small house anyway.

Longueville stopped the wagon and pointed at the forest. "The house should through the forest here. "

"Huh? We're here already?" Louise finally noticed that they stopped. To her, it didn't feel like a four hour ride. She was too busy looking into other magic that she could try to perform. They were all too hard right now, in fact, the only thing that she could really feasibly do was focus her magic, conjure elements of mass destruction, and magic circles. She could blanket an area with magic, but that didn't really do her any good. Conjuring elements, well she had been working on making them less destructive. Magic circles were actually surprisingly simple, it was just like following a recipe, no thinking required.

"Yes Zero, we're here. Where has your mind been?"

"I was just thinking."

"Thinking? Well it certainly looked like it, you were spacing out through my insults." Kirche said as she got out of the wagon.

Louise fumed a bit. She was getting insulted while deep in the browsing? The nerve!

"For you information, I was trying to figure out what magic to use on the thief. Perhaps if you study magic instead of your harem, you would be as adept of a mage as me."

"Then what do you call last night because that didn't seem adept." Kirche retorted quietly as she followed Tabitha into the forest. The girl was naturally quiet, she could sneak ahead, scouting the area without giving away any hint of her presence.

"I heard that, it was a fluke. A fluke!" Louise was a good mage, she would show them. She would show them all!

After a couple of minutes walking in the forest, the group found themselves in a clearing. If Louise consulted the archives, it would've given a reply back saying that this was an event flag. The only thing that was in the clearing was a suspiciously abandoned house. It was planning time, and the group of three mages and one secretary annex master criminal huddled together near a bush next to the house.

"We should go in for a closer look, I don't see any activity in the house from the windows," Kirche commented.

"Silent." The usual emotionless Tabitha answer.

"Should we just go in and ambush Fouquet?" Louise asked in a much softer voice. Fouquet might have been dangerous, but she doubted he was more lethal than her own mother.

"I think a bit more caution is in order. Fouquet is dangerous remember. I'll go in and check it out. Tabitha can follow afterwards." Kirche trusted Tabitha to cover her back. The germanian also had experience with operations like these. More times than not, goblins sprung ambushes. If Forquet was in there waiting, he would get a nasty burning surprise.

"What about me? You can't expect me to just wait here and do nothing." The pink hair girl asked. Who made Kirche boss?

"No, I need you to stay on guard here in case Fouquet is in the forest nearby." Kirche really didn't want the zero to go in with them. If anything, confined spaces with the magic of the zero equaled a burned down and exploded house with them inside.

"Then I'll scan the area for Fouquet or anything suspicious." Longueville spoke up. She needed to get away from these kids to safely execute her plan. It was the reason why she hid the staff in an obvious place in the first place. She knew these kids were responsible for that forsaken weather array, she was confident that they would figure out the staff of destruction as well. After they had done that, well, even with the staff she doubted any of them had the raw power required to destroy her golem.

"Fine, I'll guard." Louise resigned. A Vallière guarding? Well, it gave her more time to think of other magic, but still, mother would not be proud of this nor would it prove to anyone that she could in fact use magic.

With that, everyone split up. Kirche cautiously entered the house. The house or rather small cabin seemed simple. There appeared to be no traps, no thieves waiting in ambush, and no other kinds of lethal surprises either, just a bed with a few paintings on the wall and a miniature painting on a desk. She noted all the paintings looked extremely detailed to an inhuman degree, whoever lived here must have been a master painter… or stolen the paintings from one.

"There's no one in here." Kirche softly called out.

"No traps." Tabitha walked over as she examined a chest. Satisfied with the examination, she opened it up and saw tube like artifact.

"You know that's an odd looking staff if anything."

Outside, Louise was too busy checking the archives she had access to when the ground started to come to life. First a fist, then an arm, then the head of the golem rising from the ground like an undead zombie. By the time Louise snapped out of her trance to notice something, it was too late. The golem had already lifted the roof off the house.

Kirche and Tabitha looked up at the golem as it lifted the roof off. It looked like it was made of stone! Where did that thief get the stone?

"It's a trap!" Louise yelled out.

"Thanks for the warning, we never could have guessed!" Kirche replied sarcastically. The girl cast the largest fireball she could muster. Instead of doing any damage, they now had not just an angry stone golem after them, it was on fire too.

"Ehehe, oops." Kirche said as she ran for it.

Tabitha quickly responded by pointed her staff at the golem and singing a small chant. Shards of ice pelted the golem, a spell only triangle mages were capable of. It was also of no use other than putting out the flames on the golem.

"We're in over our heads, we need to run. Now!"

Tabitha nodded at the suggestion as she signaled her familiar in the sky. It was too late as the golem threw its fist forward with the intent to crush the intruders. Tabitha prepared to intercept the flying fist, better that she die here than Kirche. Suddenly, a bright yellow light intercepted the fist. As they looked at it, they realized it seemed to only encompass the house.

"Get out of there! My barrier can't repel a golem of that magnitude for much longer!" The Vallière yelled from outside.

The duo got to their senses and ran out of the house with the staff of destruction. Kirche swore afterwards that she felt the golem's fist touching her back just as they ran out of the house. Behind them, the golem seemed to frown as it's prey got away. The two paid no mind to it as they ran to a safer distance from the walking tower of stone and death. Slyphid landed nearby and as fast as they could they mounted the dragon.

"We got the staff, it's time to run! Where's Louise?" Kirche wondered then heard some explosions behind her.

The girl in question only ran back to get some distance. Louise was conjuring every element she could to stop the golem. A flaming boulder didn't work, electric beams didn't work, and she even tried freezing the damn thing. It was still advancing and she tried varying powers of her elements.

"Louise, we got the staff. We need to run!"

"Run! I won't run from this! I'll show everyone that I'm a noble! I'll show them I have the most powerful magic!"

"Damn that Vallière! This is no time for your stupid pride. We're outmatched and your 'magic' isn't doing anything." The germanian gritted out.

"Support." Tabitha said as they lifted off the ground and flew around the golem casting various spells. Still doing nothing to it, they had yet to even damage it.

As Louise was conjuring more spells to throw at it, the golem steadily advanced on her position while ignoring the two mages in the sky. Louise was getting worried; it would be only a few moments before the golem smashed her into the ground. Quickly, Louise asked one question to the archive.

_*Scanning… Forty methods to stopping a golem…*_

Forty? She didn't have the time to check them all. Which ones could she do in the shortest period of time?

_*Narrowing search… Entry Found… Acceptable two-step process to increase time and total annihilation of golem. This will decrease MP by 90% of current value. Proceed?"_

Yes, yes. If it destroyed the golem before turning her into chunky salsa, she would gladly sacrifice this… MP. As long as it didn't use willpower it was okay, right?

Instructions started to flow into the girl as she pointed her broom staff at the golem and blanketed it with her magic. The first step was to stand still and the second was to remain calm.

_-Extract from the Archive on the 'False Statement' method of stopping a golem-_

_To the mages of this land, not very much is known how a golem works. A golem, by Halkeginian standards, is earth animated by magic. Magic put in a golem is rather strange and no one really got why a golem had the sentience to follow commands. The truth of the matter was, it doesn't have sentience, magic only grants a golem certain logic parameters to allow it to follow commands. The more magic put into a golem, the more complex instruction sets it can follow. It's like overclocking a computer, the higher the voltage one runs through the processor the more computations it can preform per timeframe._

_There are several critical magical subsystems of a golem. Usually the creator doesn't have to worry about these since magic itself creates these systems. These subsystems are a necessity for any golem and they are comprised of regeneration, command logics, and stabilization kinematics. Regeneration is responsible for how the golem is formed and its auto repair and maintenance. The command logics govern the ability to follow the user's commands from magic. The most important part of a bipedal golem is the stabilization kinematics, its ability to move and stay standing under rapidly changing conditions._

_The last step one needs to perform using this method utilizes both these ideas and the concept of the spell 'intercept'. Instead of the regular spell 'intercept', allowing one to take control of an opposing golem for a few seconds, this spell is a variation of it. The mage in question only needs to focus on blanketing her magic on the golem and think of it's movement. Her intent should be to insert one command into the kinematics subsystems of the golem. If the opposing mage doesn't know what command was inserted, then the opponent won't be able to override it. Once enough magic is available to break into the subsystem, a mage needs to chant only one phrase._

"**This statement is false!**"

In an instant, everything went silent and the golem stopped in place. For a few moments, no spells were thrown and the golem halted its progress in an asymptotically stable position. Kirche scratched her head, "What did the zero do? And how does a golem stop from what she yelled out?"

Fouquet, who was controlling the golem from a range, cursed as she tried to command the golem to move. It's like it was stuck deciding something and not responding to any movement commands. If the things didn't start working again soon, she would have to remake the golem and she didn't have the willpower for that. That golem took a quite a bit of magic to transmute the earth into stone and fashion it into a golem.

The first part of the plan executed, the next part of the plan was to concentrate her magic and think of her most hated thing in the world. It wasn't enough to lock the golem in place, she needed to destroy it. For a full minute, Louise concentrated then in a moment she push her staff forward and yelled, "Arcane BEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAM!"

She once read that the power of a beam attack is exponentially increased with the amount of letters between the first letter and last letter of the acoustic component. Therefor it was no surprise to her when a red beam erupted from her wand with a diameter of three feet. It shot out over the golem, splitting it in half when she arced the beam downward. After a dramatic moment of silence, the two halves felt apart and violently exploded as if they were made of high explosive instead of hardened granite.

Slyphid landed as Kirche and Tabitha dismounted. They had been flying above the golem when the beam almost hit them. After the attack ended, they could see a gaping chasm marking the path of the beam, extending about between four to five times the height of the golem. Kirche knew Louise had destructive results when her spells failed, but when she actually tried to destroy something the results were beyond anything germanian had ever seen. Fire doesn't pull off this much carnage.

"Louise what the hell was that!"

"It was a beam attack… I was going for more beams." Louise exhaustedly said. One beam was good, but she was going for that beam spam attack. She must've forgot the 's' at the end of beam. The spell she used was a full arcane spell amplified by spending a large amount of MP. In the course of that attack she had found out that MP was, in fact, willpower.

"If you don't mind, let's find Longueville. I need to take a break, that took a lot out of me." she said panting.

"I'm right here, I was hiding until the golem left." Longueville popped out from the bushes behind them. It was one thing to have her golem destroyed by the staff of destruction, it was another to see it utterly obliterated by a student. That was when she called it quits on the job. With magic powerful enough to not just stop her most powerful golem but to carve it completely in half, there was no way she was going to risk her life against that. It would've been easier if the client just needed the staff, but whoever it was wanted to know how it worked.

"Then let's head back, hopefully Fouquet won't send more of those golems."

Yeah, no more golems. It wouldn't do her much good anyway; any golem she made would be from weak earth. Between two relatively fresh mages, one being close to a triangle wind mage and somewhere around a line fire mage, they would have enough firepower to take down a dirt golem. Not to mention the pink haired devil might have enough magic to stop any golem. How she'd stopped her first one, Longueville didn't know. All she knew was that a paradoxical statement would stop it.

* * *

"So Fouquet wasn't found anywhere after you retrieved the staff?" Osmond asked as he eyed the staff on his desk. Then looked at the four individuals that went on the hunt, they don't look too worn by it, but if what they said was true, the Vallière used powerful destructive magic to dispatch a stone golem. He should've figured, that Vallière child had explosive results when she was trying her _normal _magic, it would make some sense if her intentionally destructive magic was on a scale not heard of since Heavy Wind. Probably ran in the family.

"No sir, Fouquet was not around." Longueville replied as she was the one that scanned the area.

Osmond felt a twitch in his magical senses. Odd. In that moment, Colbert entered into the room. "Well, you three seem tired from the journey. I'll see to it that you are rewarded for your efforts in retrieving the staff." As the three left, Osmond signaled Colbert to close and lock the door.

"What about me?" The green haired women asked as she eyed the professor that finished locking the door.

"Ah yes, well I had Colbert do some research on the information that you had. You see, Colbert summoned a fire dragon as his familiar and so he had the ability to either warn the palace of the thief or to search the nearby area around that house for information that you retrieved."

"And what has he found?" The women did not like where this was going. She was eyeing possible ways of escaping now.

"Nothing. You see there was a problem with the information that you supplied. In particular, how did you get the information when servants that I questioned told me no one had used any horses this morning? So my question is, Miss. Longueville, do you know how to use magic?"

"I…." In a swift motion, Longueville pulled out her wand and pointed it at the headmaster. "I want out of here, NOW!"

One thing that Longueville shouldn't have assumed was that Colbert was a defenseless, coward like the other teachers. It was too bad she never knew that Colbert was once known as the Fire Snake, the man that defeated whole battle groups with a wand, blade, and a powerful fire dragon. So it was no surprise when the instant that the now known thief threatened the headmaster, he reacted as quickly as possible and pointed his staff at the thief. "Put the wand down now!"

"Call off your lackey, old man. I swear, I'll blow your head off!"

The only reply that the lady got was Osmond cocking an eyebrow up and saying, "My word, is that how a young lady should act?"

Fouquet was in a pickle now. She really wasn't going to blow the old man's head off, even if he was a rabid pervert. The professor behind her wasn't a sniveling coward, and that impressed her as well as annoyed her. Well, she'll just transmute the floor and drop down with an invisibility spell. Quickly she pointed at the floor and chanted the spell for transmutation. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Colbert moving to stop her. It was too late, the spell activated.

She was fully expecting the spell to disintegrate the floor, but that didn't happen. A circle appeared around her to mark that she was using transmutation, but nothing happened. Then the professor reached her, first knocking her to the ground with a quick swing with the staff and a small fire spell to instantly destroy her wand. Out of options, she knew that she was done for. They were going to turn her in to the palace.

"So you do know magic. Well, did Fouquet hire you?"

So she still had a chance, no instant death for her, just incarceration. "Yes."

"Interesting. Do you know Fouquet?"

"No." If she kept answering questions, she might get a lighter punishment from the old man. "Can I get up? This floor is cold and dirty."

With a nod, he signaled the fire teacher to let her up. "Is he nearby?"

"No." Why would he ask that question, it seemed pointless to her.

"Hmm, that's unfortunate. I do wonder though. Were you the one to steal the staff?"

"No." Only her iron self control prevented her from experiencing cold sweat. The slightest slip up now and the game was up.

"Interesting…"

It started to look like she would be arrested, not executed. He had no proof that she was Fouquet, just that she was working under Fouquet.

"I guess, only one more question remains. Are you Fouquet?"

What? What kind of question was that? Something strange was going on. Something to do with the questions asked. "No, I'm just his messenger and informant."

"Very interesting, you see Longueville, if that's your name, I've built the defenses to this room in specific in the time you were gone. One of things you've no doubt seen, anti-transmutation magic. I have to say, that is powerful transmutation given by the light emitted from it. Like something only a triangle mage or above can do."

Uh oh, that did not bode well. Osmond might be onto her, but maybe she could still get out of the mess she was in.

"One of the other protections I put in here was something new. I put in an empathetic detector for this room alone. It allows me to question anyone and know if they are lying. Of course, something like this will only last a week until renewal, but it served its purpose. I just regret not giving you the formal interview." With that Osmond nodded to Colbert.

Detect if she was lying? Shit. That means he know that's she's Fouquet. Giving that they still blame her for the weather array that she had no part of that gives grounds for instant execution. The question is they going to kill her or just turn her in for public execution. Colbert quickly took something out of his robe and grabbed her right arm. She felt something metallic clamp tightly on to her right wrist.

"What is this? While I appreciate you giving me jewelry, this hardly seems the appropriate time."

"No, just insurance. I wouldn't tamper with that, you might find the results undesirable, nor should to try to leave the academy."

"So now what, you're going to wait for the palace to come pick me up?"

"No, I have something better in mind. No one needs to know that you are Fouquet. This academy will be your prison."

They were not going to kill her. She would be praising the founder, were it not for one detail that bothered her.

"Why? You have nothing to gain from this."

"On the contrary, I'll be out one secretary. Well, I'll still be out one secretary if you agree to the terms."

"Terms?"

"You see, I know brilliant magical talent when I see it, one that can be of great use to the academic world. That transmutation requires a lot of knowledge and experience; it'd be a waste to see that rot away in prison."

So the old man wanted her as a teacher? Well, there was not much she could do now, it was either death or forever teaching brats to use earth magic. Good thing she had experience with brats.

"Besides, that weather array is one of the most complicated arrays I had ever seen. I couldn't even decipher it. The most impressive part of the array that you built was that it had no visible negative impact to the environment. It never became unstable, only when too much magic was fed through. Then again it was your intent to use it in a magically rich environment to pull the magic from. "

Wait, wait, he wants to know how that damn thing worked?

"I don't know anything about that array." she protested.

"Remember, I can feel if you're lying. You do know something about the array, but no matter. You can keep the secret to yourself for now. No doubt you'll be working on it later if you accept the proposal to be an earth mage instructor."

Yeah, she only knows that one of those kids made it, but Fouquet's life is riding on the fact that she's a powerful mage. Better not say anything for now. "I accept."

"Good, you're now the primary earth mage for transmutation. I have a couple of things I need you to work on as far as repairs are concerned since our current earth mages are out."

Great, fixing walls that she broke.

"Then there's the Vestri Court…"

Oh joy, fixing stuff that pink haired devil blew up.

"An lastly you can continue your work on that weather array…"

Wonderful, trying to figure out what that blasted array does besides breaking the academy magic.

End Chapter 3

AN: Following closely to the original story. Not likely, some things out of order, something things that might be cut out entirely, and I'm planning on the next chapter to be labeled Tarbes RPG. Again, I thank Madork for beta-ing this.


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